


Unexpected Number

by TerresDeBrume



Series: AUs without a cause [30]
Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Fluff, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-28
Updated: 2014-04-28
Packaged: 2018-01-21 04:25:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1537463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TerresDeBrume/pseuds/TerresDeBrume
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Magnus found a phone number in a book.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unexpected Number

**Author's Note:**

> Written for my second take on the 30 Drabbles challenge :)

“How the hell do you manage to change your number so often ?”

“Well that’s an original name.”

 

Magnus chuckles to himself when the guy on the other side gasps and makes some form of inintelligible noise -Magnus thinks he catches something along the line of killing someone with a spoon before the guy sighs :

 

“Which book did you find my number in ?”

 

Magnus’ lips spread into a broad grin -the tone of his improvised conversation partner is long-suffering, almost resignate and that, of course, is bound to be intriguing to anyone. Moreso if, like Magnus, you're curious as a cat. He checks the book he grabbed at random for a title -frowning at a chip in his golden nail polish- and says :

 

“The first volume of _Twilight_ ,” -the other makes a strangled noise- “I have to say I’m surprised we even have it here given—wait, are you a fan?”

“Are you kidding me? No! I would never write on a book for one. It’s my sister who does that as a hobby.”

“Ah,” Magnus laughs, “That explains the tag line then.”

“Oh my--What is it?”

“Are you sure you want to know?” Magnus teases.

 

He ducks behind a bookshelf when the librarian walks by him, looking for a source to the noise he’s hearing -Magnus has to restrain himself from throwing his foot forward to trip him. The man is a horrible bigot and constantly makes ridiculous comment about nail polish stains on pages every time Magnus comes to borrow a book.

In a way, he almost admire the man’s determination -with all the freaky college looks he must see around here every day he still managed to single Magnus out… that has to be some kind of exploit.

 

“I have a constitutional right exam in an hour and a horrible feeling I’ll flunk it -at least if I die of embarrassment now I won’t have to deal with my favorite teacher’s disappointment.”

“Oooh, are you a teacher’s pet?”

“No, not really, but she’s my brother’s gran and it’s… complicated. Let’s just say disappointing  _her_  doesn’t end in the classroom. Anyway, the line?”

“If you’re a booknerd and you know it,” Magnus reads in a low voice, muffling his grin in his hand, “call for a good time. Five minutes guaranteed.”

 

Whoever is at the end of the line has a very expressive grunt, in Magnus’ opinion, and he pictures him flushing bright red with his head bent down; maybe even grinning as he walks through what sounds like an empty corridor -or maybe a dorm hall. Somehow Magnus is just about certain he's got a pretty smile.

 

“I’m going to kill her,” the guy sighs, “slowly, and painfully.”

“I don’t know,” Magnus chuckles, checking his watch, “She was right about the five minute thing, and I think it’s funny.”

“That’s because you never answered your phone only to have a stranger ask if you were wearing panties and call you a slut.”

 

It’s a good thing Magnus learned long ago how to disguise laughing fits into abrupt coughing, because it affords him just enough time to duck into one of the tall windows and sit on the sill before he dissolves in a fit of hysterics, the librarian prowling around like a wolf on the hunt.

 

“I’m sorry,” he says after a while, tears streaming down his cheeks, I really am, but it’s so ridiculous—”

“Oh don’t worry,” the other guy sighs, “whenever a guy does that the joke ends up being on him because all I have to say is ‘who’s this?’ and they backpedal like their life depends on it. I guess it just says something sad about our society that so many guys see a message to talk with a book nerd and assume it has to be from a girl offering sexual favors.”

 

Magnus almost takes his phone off his ear to stare at it.

He rests his back against a wall and brings his legs up to his chest to rest more comfortably, the pristine copy of Meyer's novel tucked against his stomach as he grins into the receiver:

 

“I hope I’m not going to freak you out or anything but so far you sound sexy, funny  _and_  feminist, and now I kind of want to meet you face to face. I mean, if you’re okay with that?”

“If I—uh—but—you don’t—I mean, I don’t even know your name!”

“It’s Magnus,” Magnus tells him, smile broadening at the lack of ‘fuck off’ in the other’s words or intonation. “What’s yours?” The other mutters something Magnus doesn’t quite catch. “Alex?”

“Alec,” he corrects, “With a C like coconut.”

 

Magnus is fairly sure he hears a slap coming from Alec's end of the line -his palms prickle with sweat and he bites his lips as his free hand finds the threads of his jeans where a hole is spreading on his right knee.

 

“Well,” he says -almost drawls, in fact- “Alec with a C like coconut, how would you feel about having coffee with a complete stranger this afternoon?”

“Nervous as fuck,” Alec answers -then curses, presumably after he realizes exactly what he’s just admitted.

 

Magnus’ smile turns fond.

 

“Do you know Taki’s diner?”

“No, my brother works there.”

 

Alec’s voice is final and Magnus, assuming Alec is probably not out to his family yet, doesn’t press it.

 

“There’s a coffeeshop called Madame Dorothea’s two blocks from the administration building, do you know it?”

“Dorothea’s a good friend,” Magnus confirms, “and her milk tart is delicious.”

“Good,” Alec sighs –Magnus thinks he can hear some relief in his voice- “Well... how about five then?”

“Works for me. Should I pick another book to talk about by then?”

 

Alec’s voice has a smile in it when he tells Magnus he’s being a butt, and Magnus’ cheeks ache with his grin until the very moment they hang up.

He spends the whole day picturing what Alec might look like, what his favorite books could be, if he’s going to be as interesting after a longer conversation… and of course, if they’ll feel like seeing each other again.

 

Spoiler: Yes, he is.

 

 

(And yeah, they do.)


End file.
